Before And After

By the sound of things, summers in Sweden could be even more zany and zesty than our own, if such a thing is possible. One thing’s for sure though, the Wannadies have found the formula that works for them – sun-drenched, cheery, uptempo mayhem – and boy are they sticking to it.

The Wannadies’ music has always sounded tailor-made for the first date/makeover montages in the most saccharine sweet of teen flicks, or the most breezy and pastel-coloured of tampon adverts. Yet scratch the sanguine surface of this album and you’ll find an album held together with sturdy, 500cc rock, and, at times, bittersweet melancholy.

There is something unique about the way the vocals of Christina Bergmark and Par Winksten are inherent to the groove of each song. Together they form a playful, sexy, wholly melodic team, nowhere more so than on ‘Disko’, in which Christina’s ‘ickle’ cutesy vocals give the song a glittery slick of lipgloss.

The Wannadies will most likely never occupy the space in our affections (or place in the musical canon) in which weightier acts like Coldplay or Radiohead reign, yet there are few better albums that are going to take you so merrily and so gallantly through this summer. Sometimes the weight, the shock of the new, just isn’t what you need. For now, the sun is shining, and this album is begging to be played really, really loud.